The Athens 96 Collection

Where were you in July 1996? If you were here in Athens, you may have been one of the hundreds of volunteers involved with Athens 96. If you weren’t here in Athens, you may be asking what this is. Well, keep reading as we explore how the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta impacted our town.

The 1996 Olympics are most known for being in Atlanta; however, locations for the games were spread out across the entire Southeast — from Florida, to Tennessee, and throughout Georgia. The Atlanta Olympics Committee announced the need for secondary locations and the people of Athens rose to the occasion; town leaders including Mayor Gwen O’Looney, newsman Dick Mendenhall, and faculty of the University of Georgia began planning for the potential of the Olympics coming to Athens. These community members organized pep events in Athens and Atlanta to display Athens’ interest in hosting parts of the Olympics. After pep rallies and other lobbying work, Athens 96 succeeded. Athens was chosen to be the location for the knockout rounds of Men’s and Women’s Soccer (Sanford Stadium), Volleyball, and Rhythmic Gymnastics. 

Seeing the success of this event, these community members created the corporation Athens 96, dedicated to serving as a liaison between the multiple moving parts of the Athens Olympics Bid — the city government, the University of Georgia, and the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG). The board governed all aspects of the Olympics in Athens, from transportation to medical resources, budget to volunteers. They also coordinated public programming across town including concerts, events, and programming at the Athens Clarke County Library. 

A flyer for the Athens 1996 Summer PanAthenic Festival

Athens 96 heavily impacted the Athens community through volunteer coordination as well. They began the Ask About Athens program, a volunteer program designed to extend beyond the Olympics, creating a contingent of Athens Ambassadors. Volunteers also proposed and completed Legacy Projects before, during, and after the games, intended to beautify the city while residents were enthused about the Olympics. Projects included clean-ups in Sandy Creek Park, donations to local soccer teams, and flower planting.

You can take a retrospective look at the planning of events and programs as well as the behind-the-scenes planning it takes to run an event as large as the Olympic Games in the Athens 96 collection (MSS 054). If you’d like more information about Athens 96, contact the Heritage Room at heritageroomref@athenslibrary.org.

Works Cited

Athens 96 collection, MSS 054, Heritage Room, Athens-Clarke County Library. https://aspace-arls.galileo.usg.edu/repositories/2/resources/62

Georgia Postcard Collection: Downtown Scenes

Our second look at the Georgia postcard collection takes in three different scenes in downtown Athens. Each shows changes that have taken place, but to varying degrees. The first, looking eastward from the intersection of Clayton and Lumpkin streets, gives us a glimpse into an era of downtown’s history starkly different from our own: before the opening of Georgia Square Mall and before oak and ginkgo trees were planted along Clayton. Though the afternoon shadows and the quality of the image make reading the signs difficult, those fortunate enough to have lived in Athens during the 1970s may recognize some of the businesses seen here.

The next postcard shows what may be a familiar scene to those who love Athens history: College Avenue between Clayton and Broad streets, decades before College Square was created. Though the artist here did not include a streetcar in the illustration, the rails on which the electric trolleys ran are visible. The first streetcars in Athens were actually pulled by mules, starting in 1885 at the latest. Electric streetcars appeared in 1891 and remained until 1930. You can learn a great deal about these streetcars from a history written by David Winter Ray, available via the University of Georgia Libraries.

One can also glimpse in this illustration, in the block between Clayton and Washington streets, the building that housed the original Palace Theatre. This building was north of the building currently occupied by Wuxtry Records. It was replaced by a larger modernist structure in 1970. After the theatre closed, sadly the building went too, replaced by a parking garage. You can find more images and information about the Palace at a Facebook group that has been created for it. Not many places that have been closed since 1987 have a Facebook page…

The final postcard for today depicts the First Christian Church that sits at the corner of Pulaski and Prince/Dougherty. At the right-side edge of the postcard, a building east of the church is visible. This building does not currently exist. Based on a timeline found at the church’s website, the building could have been the parsonage constructed in 1926 and demolished in 1973 to allow for a parking lot (that sounds familiar!) but the same history also notes that the original church building, located across the street at what is now Athens Blueprint and Copy Shop, was sold and moved when the current building was completed in 1915. The transplanted old church was also located east of the new church, and apparently survived until 1971, when it was demolished to make way for Denney Tower. Given that this postcard is another illustration, we do not know if artistic license is at work here. Could the artist have depicted the old church, or for that matter one of the houses that once graced Dougherty Street but were torn down during the era of Urban Renewal?

If you have details to add about the topics discussed here or any of the buildings visible in these postcards, please leave a comment. We would love to hear from you.

-Justin J. Kau

The Georgia Postcard Collection

The Georgia postcard collection offers a visual feast for those interested in Athens history. The collection includes a total of 70 different images (79 postcards because there are duplicate copies of several), of which 65 depict buildings and scenes in Athens at various points in its history. The collection will continue to grow as more postcards are found or donated to the Heritage Room.

Among the postcards of significant historical interest are shots of Clayton Street looking eastward from its intersection with Lumpkin Street in the 1970s; the Prince Avenue home where the Ladies Garden Club was established, that was later made part of Young Harris Memorial United Methodist Church; and the original location of St. Mary’s Hospital on Milledge Avenue—a beautiful building demolished in the 1960s. Many of the postcards were scanned years ago by Heritage Room staff, so you can have a quick look at them at our Flickr page.

Athens: In Time, the Heritage Room’s blog, will highlight particular aspects of the postcard collection over the coming months. To begin, we have three buildings that look considerably different now than they did in the past.

As noted above, the home where the Ladies Garden Club was founded has since become part of Young Harris, a peaceful, green spot amid the hustle and bustle of contemporary Prince Avenue.

Next is a postcard showing the St. Mary’s building on Baxter St. as it looked when it was originally constructed.

As seen here, even modern buildings can change (in this case, had additions made to the original structure) to such an extent that old photographs of them inspire the viewer’s imagination. The phrase, “the past is a foreign country,” made famous by the novelist L. P. Hartley, comes to mind.

Another example of a building that looks considerably different in the present day is the University of Georgia Coliseum. This postcard has a handwritten date on the back, 1973, but that date could refer to the postcard’s publication date, as the photograph appears to show the coliseum not too long after its opening in 1964. We hope seeing this local landmark in its original form brings back memories of University sports events, not to mention the music concerts that were regularly featured there.

On a related note, you may want to read A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia, written by local historian Gary L. Doster, available to read in the Heritage Room and to check out from the library’s non-fiction section. This book, as well as related books that Doster has published covering different areas of Georgia, shows photographs from hundreds of postcards, and provides the historical background necessary to contextualize them. Video footage of a talk that Doster gave at the library in 2017, Athens Then and Now: What a Difference 100 Years Can Make, is available at the library’s website and YouTube.

-Justin J. Kau